Gene expression profiling of mucinous ovarian tumors and comparison with upper and lower gastrointestinal tumors

Advanced stage MOC have poor chemotherapy response and prognosis and biomarkers to help with Stage I adjuvant treatment are lacking. In addition, differentiating primary mucinous ovarian carcinoma (MOC) from gastrointestinal (GI) metastases to the ovary is challenging due to phenotypic similarities. Clinicopathological and gene expression data were analysed to identify prognostic and diagnostic features. mRNA expression of 19 endogenous genes was measured using NanoString plexset, normalized to housekeeping genes . Samples from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor tissue were analysed for 604 patients. Associations between gene expression and overall survival were measured as well as associations between pattern of invasion and overall survival in mucinous ovarian carcinoma (MOC). Random Forest and unsupervised heirarchical clustering analyses were used to assess the ability of the selected genes to differentiate diagnoses. (contributor) Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis Consortium (contributor) Australian Pancreatic Genome Initiative